Senescent

By Deane Barker tags: definition

Definition: old, aged

The root is the Latin “sen,” which means “old,” which is also where we get “senile” from.

Why I Looked It Up

In Information Hunters, which discusses a request for a pension:

It has “a slightly crackpot (or senescent) air of plaint and persecution.”

The implication is that the requestor was either crazy or senile.

Links from this – Information Hunters: When Librarians, Soldiers, and Spies Banded Together in World War II Europe October 25, 2023
This is a history book that answers the question: what did librarians do to help the war effort during World War II? Well, a lot it turns out. They amassed foreign periodicals and scoured them for intelligence information They captured and cataloged information left behind in German facilities...